Help

Further information, tips, and frequently asked questions to help your research.

Contents

Contents Tab

The Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives correspondence, drawings and photographs have been organized into folders to enhance browsing of similar content. The folders are Correspondence, Drawings and Photographs by Garden Area, Biographies, Maps and Surveys, Additional Designs and Sketches, and Contemporary Art Installations. To browse content items, click on the + to expand the folders to reveal sub-folders holding content items.

Types of Content

Correspondence related to the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens can be found in folders organized by type or format: Book Lists; Letters and Notes; Newspaper Clippings; Orders, Invoices, Receipts, and Expense Reports; Plant Lists; Price Requests and Estimates; Telegrams, and Unindexed Items. If a correspondence included both a letter and an invoice, a decision was made to organize the correspondence into one folder type (e.g. Letters and Notes), but index for both correspondence types, (e.g. Letters and Notes and Orders, Invoices, Receipts, and Expense Reports) to enable identification through a search and through filtering or limiting a search.

Unindexed items are illegible or difficult to read correspondence which do not have index terms assigned or connections to the Index. They have been assigned subjects, if possible, to enable identification through a search. This folder may include more than one type of correspondence. They are there for others to discover and decipher their message.

Drawings and Photographs have been organized into content folders by the garden area represented in the drawing or photograph. The folders are organized alphabetically by garden area name. If a drawing or photograph represented more than one garden area, a decision was made to place it into the folder for the garden area chiefly represented, but index for all garden areas to enable identification through searching. Some items were difficult to place into any one garden area folder. For example, if a survey represented a wide-spread area of the Dumbarton Oaks property, it was placed into the folder Maps and Surveys. If it represented two garden areas equally, the item was placed in two garden area folders. For example, the Beech Terrace and Urn Garden planting plan with legend, 1959, can be found in both the Beech Terrace folder and the Urn Terrace folder. Placing the same content item in two different folders was the exception rather than the rule, but important to know that a search for the plan mentioned will display two identical items.

The garden area folders generally align with the organization of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens described in Beatrix Farrand’s Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks. Beatrix Farrand recognized the nature or type of garden space by further distinguishing the garden areas of the Dumbarton Oaks property into The South Front, Enclosed Gardens, Informal Gardens, and The Museum Wing and Areas Not Generally Open to the Public. Some of the garden areas she created no longer exist, are no longer part of the property, or developed after her tenure by other renowned landscape architects. More information can be found in Garden Organization and Layout under the Help tab.

Drawings include architectural drawings, design sketches, plans, blueprints, photostats, and planting plans created by Beatrix Farrand, Ruth Havey, Alden Hopkins, and other renowned landscape architects. Generally the historic photographs, most in black and white, document the state of the garden areas up to the death of Mildred Bliss in 1969. Color photographs document the gardens from approximately the 1950s-1980s.

Biographies include information on individuals and firms who sent or received correspondence or created drawings, sketches, photographs, art installations, maps, or surveys associated with the development of Dumbarton Oaks Gardens.

Maps and surveys include published and unpublished drawings showing an aerial view of the garden. They generally represent wide-spread areas of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens and are indexed for all garden areas shown. A number of the maps have been included as part of the Dumbarton Oaks tour leaflets from the 1940s to the present.

This folder includes drawings, sketches and tracings of various garden ornaments, ironwork, and details many created by landscape architect, Ruth Havey, who initially worked for Beatrix Farrand. They were a portfolio of design ideas to consider as garden areas were further developed or modified. Some are tracings of designs from published books, and others were design ideas of an unknown creator. Most of these drawings and tracings are undated and were never realized in the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens, therefore they are not assigned a garden area.

In 2009, a Garden and Landscape Studies and Gardens program to exhibit contemporary art in the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens was born. This folder includes contemporary photographs that document the temporary art installations within the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens. An art installation may have been created in one garden area or scattered throughout the gardens. These photographs are indexed for the garden area to enable identification through a search.

Explanation of Fields

A short identifying phrase to describe the item (e.g. correspondence, drawing, photograph, garden area history, or biography).

Alternate Title

Other title phrase for which the item is known. Many times this is a longer phrase transcribed directly from the item.

Creator

The individual, individuals, or firms associated with the creation of the item or the garden space depicted in a photograph; or some types of correspondence such as a book list, newspaper clipping, expense report, or plant list.

Sender

The individual or firm who sent the correspondence such as a letter or note, order, invoice, receipt, price request, estimate or telegram.

Recipient

The individuals or firms who received the correspondence such as a letter or note, order, invoice, receipt, price request, estimate or telegram.

Associated Name

The individuals or firms who are in some way associated with the creation of a correspondence or drawing. It is also the individuals or firms involved with the creation of the garden space represented in a photograph.

Photographer

The individual or firm responsible for taking the photograph.

Date

(for correspondence and drawings) The year written on the item or the approximate year the item was thought to have been created based on the history of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens and other related items in the Garden Archives Collection. The date can appear as a single year or a range of years.

(for photographs) The date the photograph was taken.

Garden Area

The name of the Dumbarton Oaks garden area discussed in a correspondence or represented in a drawing, photograph, map, survey, or design sketch. Many garden areas have been referred to by more than one name. The Chronology of Garden Names below lists all names for a garden area used since the Blisses began developing the garden.

Description

A brief summary of the correspondence, and explanatory notes about the item not provided in other fields.

Accession No.

The number assigned to a correspondence, drawing, or photograph.

Related Items

Items such as correspondence, drawings, and photographs strongly associated to the other items in the collection. For example, different designs or views for the Arbor Terrace fountains would be considered related items. Related Items can also be those designs created over a number of years or a back and forth series of letters discussing the same topic. Generally, related items will be between the same type of item such as letter to letter or photograph to photograph showing different views of a garden area.

Work Types

The format of an item. An item can be assigned more than one work type. Examples: a letter which includes a small sketch will be assigned both correspondence and drawing as work types. A planting plan shown with a plant list key will be assigned work types for drawings, planting drawings, plant lists, and correspondence. All written communication is assigned a broad work type and a more specific work type.

Measurements

The physical size, scale, and dimensions of drawings and photographs is noted for each of those items. Correspondence do not have measurements.

Materials/Techniques

The materials, techniques, and processes used in the creation of drawings and photographs. Correspondence do not have a field for materials and techniques.

Subjects

The terms for concepts, people, and places that describe, identify, or interpret the item and what it depicts or expresses.

Collection

The name identifying the group to which the item belongs.

Repository

The place where the item is found and stored.

Location

The owner, city, and state for the item.

Index Terms

Terms found in the index which link to correspondence, drawings, and photographs .

Garden Organization and Layout

Content in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives is organized generally by the garden areas listed in Beatrix Farrand’sPlant Book for Dumbarton Oaks. Beatrix Farrand defined these unique spaces as The South Front of the estate, enclosed garden rooms or more formal spaces; informal or open spaces; and the Museum Wing and areas not generally open to the public. In 1941, Farrand began recording her descriptions of these spaces, her plant lists and plant alternatives for each, and her instructions for continued maintenance of the garden so as to ensure preservation of the distinct character of each space.

Over time, other landscape architects, such as Ruth Havey and Alden Hopkins, have succeeded Beatrix Farrand, and either altered her designs or contributed new ones. Because these contributions or alterations are not recorded in the Plant Book, the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives content must necessarily extend beyond the scope of Farrand’s Plant Book. Some content concentrates on designs for the interior and exterior of the house, other building structures, or land included in the property once owned by Robert and Mildred Bliss. Drawings and photographs exist that document these distinctive spaces; therefore, they are included as one of the 46 garden areas.

Garden areas below are arranged by The South Front, Enclosed Gardens, Informal Gardens, and Additional Garden and Estate Areas. Where there is a difference between the garden area in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives and the garden area listed in Beatrix Farrand’s Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks, a note is provided within parentheses to indicate the name or the inclusion of garden components as used in her book.

The South Front

East Lawn (includes from the Plant Book, Inner edges of the East Lawn, the Path around the East Lawn [except Terrior Column and Enclosure], Path edging from the South Gate of the Fountain Terrace to the Orangery)

Entrance Drive (includes from the Plant Book, East [Entrance] Drive and West [Exit] Drive)

Index Tab

Use the Garden Archives Index to navigate through the key concepts that appear in correspondence, drawings, and photographs. Each entry in the index serves as a link to the content that contains that topic. The index can be browsed in alphabetical order, by clicking the lettered tabs. It can be searched using a text search that finds exact letter-by-letter matches.

The Garden Archives Index is a three-level index, which was built first with concepts drawn from the correspondence. Terms for drawings and photographs were added later. Top-level terms, which appear in the largest font, are the broadest concepts. Clicking a top-level term takes you to a results page with multiple pieces of content. Second and third-level terms become progressively narrower in focus. Some second-level and most third-level terms are linked to a single piece of content. Clicking these terms opens the content in the rightmost tab inside the Garden Archives webpage. To open multiple links from the index, use right-click (PC) or command-click (Mac) to open new tabs in your browser.

How to Search the Garden Archives Index

To search the index, enter a keyword or phrase in the search box. The words will be searched exactly as entered, and will retrieve results that match, letter-by-letter, including punctuation. The index search functions much like the ctrl-F (PC) or command-F (Mac) simple search shortcut available in your browser or Microsoft Word.

A total number of results is given under the search box, and index entries containing exact matches are highlighted throughout the index. The tabs with content matching the search term will be highlighted in beige. The tab which is grayed out is the tab currently being viewed. To navigate between matches, use the arrows. When you reach the last relevant match within an alphabetical tab, the index will briefly clear and reload your search in the next alphabetical tab containing search results.

Abbreviations used in the Index

Frequently occurring people and places are identified with the following abbreviations. All people and places can be found by searching complete names, but some searches will require the use of abbreviations, since an exact match must occur or results will not appear.

Diacritics

Index terms that include diacritics will only be matched to searches that include diacritics. For example, the index term "liliacées" cannot be found by searching "liliacees." If your keyboard cannot type diacritics, it can be helpful to search parts of the word before or after the diacritical mark. In our example, searching "liliac" brings up the desired matches.

Garden Area Names

Names of many garden areas have changed over time. To ensure your index search covers all possible results for a garden area, search alternate names and variant spellings of names, such as Arbor Terrace which was at one time referred to as the Herb Garden and Terrace E. A complete list of possibilities can be found below, under Chronology of Garden Names.

Articles and Prepositions

Generally leave off initial articles when searching a phrase such as “The Mysteries of Flowers.” Initial articles and prepositions are skipped when alphabetizing, and therefore are masked from searching as well. If you cannot find a phrase using a search with initial articles or prepositions included, try searching again with only keywords. This rule applies to terms in English and foreign languages throughout the index. See the lists below for articles and prepositions to skip at the beginning of a phrase.

Punctuation

Alternate Spellings

If your search word or term may have an alternate British English spelling, be sure to search that variation as well as the American spelling. You may find additional relevant results that were not returned before Example:

Change or retype the keyword or phrase in the search box, and the index will automatically initiate a new search using your modified term after a few seconds.

Can I search just one alphabetical tab of the index?

You can initiate a search from any letter of the index, and begin browsing results in that letter first. A new search always highlights and jumps to the closest exact match. This can be useful if you know that your desired term appears in a certain letter and you do not want to click through matches found in many other letters.

How do I reduce the number of results?

If you know the exact term you are looking for, you can add more words to a phrase in the search box. You can also try searching both singular and plural variations on a word to see how this changes your results. If your concept remains too broad, try searching synonyms or thematically related terms. Example: A search for “Garden” retrieves too many results.

A search for "Garden Library" reduces the number of results.

Why are there no results for my search?

There is no letter-by-letter match for the word or phrase you entered in the search box. Check for spelling and typing errors. Try searching singular and plural forms, spelling variations, or parts of the word. For compound words, search the words together and separately. An exact match includes punctuation. If you are not sure that you are including exact punctuation, try searching parts of a phrase without including punctuation. Examples:

Because the Index Search looks for exact letter-by-letter matches, you must perform two separate searches using both plural and singular terms to find results that match both forms of the word. For example, you must search both "cemetery" and "cemeteries" to retrieve comprehensive results. This occurs for all words that change spelling in plural form.

When the root of a word does not change, you can enter just a few letters of a word that you wish to find, and all variations on that word will be highlighted as matches. For example, searching for “plant” brings up “plant,” “plants,” “planting,” and “plantings” as search results.

How do I find specific people in the index?

Top-level terms are the broadest entries for individuals. To find the top-level term for a specific person, enter his or her name into the search box in Last Name, First Name order, with a comma separating the names. Example: Thacher, John. Some people appear in the correspondence without last names. These people are indexed under “Surname Unknown.” Example: Surname Unknown, Florence. A search for “unknown” will also give results for those people whose last name could not be determined.

Can I save my search?

When you perform a search, the Garden Archives Index saves your search term and place in the index when you click an index term to open content. The index will also save your active search when you move between the Garden Archives Home, Contents, Index, and Help tabs. The Index tab only resets if you navigate away from the index without performing a search, if you erase the search box, or if you reload the entire Garden Archives site.

Search & Refine Tab

What types of material can I find through a search?

The Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives includes correspondence, drawings, photographs, maps, contemporary art installations, and garden area histories. It also contains biographical information for individuals and firms associated with the development of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens or with Robert and Mildred Bliss.

Does a search look for search terms in the actual correspondence document?

No, a search does not look for entered search terms within an actual correspondence document. When a search is performed, it is matching the search terms entered with terms that have been created for the record’s content. For more information, see Explanation of Fields.

How do I initiate a search?

Initiate a search by selecting the Search & Refine tab. Enter a keyword(s) into the General Search box or the Title Keywords search box and press the Enter or return key, or click on the search button. A date search for materials can be done by entering a single date in the Start box or a date range into the Start and End boxes under Limit by Year, followed by pressing the Enter or return key, or by clicking on the search button.

What is a General Search?

A General Search is a broad search that retrieves many results. It searches many content fields containing the term(s) entered into the search box. All content fields are defined above, under Explanation of Fields.

What is a Title Keyword search?

A Title Keyword search is a limited search that retrieves more specific results. It searches only the title field for term(s) entered into the search box.

What is an Accession No. search?

Each content item has been assigned a unique accession number. An Accession No. search is a very targeted search for the exact character string making up the accession number. To retrieve the desired item, enter the accession number in the search box exactly as it has been assigned, including spaces and punctuation.

Can I search a phrase?

Search a phrase by placing quotation marks around the search terms entered into the General Search or Title Keywords search box.

Can I perform a Boolean search?

A Boolean search allows for more than one keyword or phrase to be searched using operators to produce more relevant results. Use the Boolean operator AND to narrow a search, and the Boolean operator OR to broaden a search. A search for “fountain” AND “basin” will retrieve results that include both the terms fountain and basin. A search for “fountain” OR “basin” will retrieve results that include either the term fountain or the term basin.

How does the Limit by Year function?

Limit a search of all content to a specific date or date range by entering the year(s) into the search box(es). Following a General Search or Title Keywords search, use the Limit by Year search box to filter results to a specific year or range of years.

How do I clear my search?

Individual search terms can be deleted by clicking on the [X] to the left of Current Search term or by deselecting the refinement terms under Name, Garden Area, and Material Type. Simply highlighting and deleting terms in any search box will not clear the search.

How can I refine my search results?

You can refine results from a general or title keyword search using the Name, Garden Area, Material Type, and/or Period fields. You can also initiate a search with after performing a General, Title Keywords, or Limit by Year search. Once a selection is made, the results will automatically be limited.

Is it possible to limit search results by more than one name, garden area, or material type?

Limit search results by selecting more than one refinement in a particular category underRefine Search. For example, following aGeneral Search, select drawings and photographs to narrow search results to just thoseMaterial Types. In most cases selecting multiple refinements within one category functions as a Boolean OR search and will broaden the results. For example, following a search for benches, results can be limited by more than one garden area such asBox Terrace andFountain Terrace. The search results for benches will be refined for content having the termsBox Terrace ORFountain Terrace in theGarden Area field.

Some garden areas have changed over time leading to a name change as well. For example, the present day Arbor Terrace was previously named Terrace B or B Terrace and sometimes referred to as the Herb Garden. To retrieve all content related to a present day garden area name, select all names under Refine Search referring to the garden area. A list of all garden area names can be found below, under Chronology of Garden Names.TheNamerefinement uses a drop down menu to the right of the text box to limit search results. If selecting multiple names, the drop down default is set to perform an OR search. For example, selecting Mildred Bliss OR Beatrix Farrand will limit results to those items that have either name appearing in the content record name fields. Refining by Mildred Bliss AND Beatrix Farrand will limit results to those items that have both names appearing in the content record name fields. The AND operator is especially helpful for finding correspondence between two individuals.Search results can also be refined by choosing a selection(s) from different categories. For example following aGeneral Search, limit results to correspondence about the swimming pool and loggia by selectingSwimming Pool and Loggia underGarden Areaand correspondence underMaterial Type.

How can I retrieve all the correspondence in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives Collection?

Results for all correspondence can be retrieved either by entering the term “correspondence” into the General Search box or by selecting “correspondence” in the Material Type drop-down menu.

How can I retrieve all the garden area histories?

The garden area histories are titled, “About the …”. All of the histories can be retrieved by entering the term “about the” with quotation marks in the General Search box.

How do I view the complete content record?

When a content item is selected from the results a minimal amount of information is initially displayed. To view the complete content item record, click on the “Details” button in the lower left corner.

Chronology of Garden Names

Parts of the garden have gone by many different names over the years. Names listed here are drawn from correspondence, drawings, Beatrix Farrand’s Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks, and current usage at Dumbarton Oaks. An asterisk appears next to variant names that can be used to refine searches, as described in the frequently asked questions about the Search & Refine Tab above.

Help with Technical Issues

We recommend Chrome or Safari as preferred browsers. Firefox is good, but occasionally results in printing problems with images. We do not recommend Internet Explorer which has many bugs.

How do I print materials from the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives?

To print materials from the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives click on “Print this” in the lower left corner. Under print options, specify the number of pages to be printed before clicking on the print button.

How can I save an image from the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives?

Drawings and photographs are jpeg images that can be saved. If using a PC, save an image by performing a right click using the mouse and selecting “Save Image As”. If using a Macintosh, save an image by pressing the control key on your keyboard along with a right click using the mouse or trackpad and selecting “Save Image As.”

Correspondence are pdf documents that can be downloaded to your computer by clicking on the “download” link in the lower left corner of the pdf viewer screen for each document. A pdf viewer is required to view all downloaded documents.

How do I share materials from the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives?

Share content items with others by clicking on “+ Share” in the lower left corner and selecting from the many available popular options, such as Facebook, Twitter, Email, or Tumblr. Select the desired option and complete the requested address or log in.

Can I contribute material to the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives?

Material which is deemed historically significant in documenting the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens will be considered for inclusion in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives. Contact the Garden Archives to discuss a donation to the Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives.